Welcome once again to our (mostly) weekly post where we look around the vast realms of the internet to find you a gem or two.

Today is is the feast of Candlemas. The presentation of Jesus in the temple. The purification of Mary. As it says in the explanatory link :

“Although this is a considered a Christmas feast, it also is clearly connected to the upcoming Lenten and Easter seasons. Mary and Joseph offering Jesus to God is the beginning of His earthly ministry for His Heavenly Father. This is the first of Our Lady’s Seven Sorrows, and a foreshadowing of the Cross”

It is also a day where the Church celebrates those in Religious Life. Here the trailer “For Love Alone”. A film commissioned by the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious in the US. The trailer itself is just beautiful and enough to make you weep! The dedication and love of Christ in these women is so palpable.

For those who wish to discern their calling to religious life more closely, this book promoted by the St Paul Center in the States is written by an Australian woman, Rachael Marie Collins, entitled “Called by God” It was just published this year and has come recommended by some wonderful men and women in the Church. It “provides an overview of the spiritual life—both its joys and its challenges—and guides women as they discern whether they are called to be religious sisters or nuns.” 

The St Paul Centre are also providing two of their “Journey Through Scripture” series for free over Lent. A great way to deepen your understanding of our faith during this season.

Here’s a video by the dynamic Fr Mike Schmitz on how fasting can change you forever, that we are made for freedom. Good timing for thinking about what we want to do for Lent this year.

We live in a culture today that seems to have forgotten how to think. This is such an integral part of what it means to be human, and we are training our brains to switch this off. How do we even begin to evangelise in this kind of a world? Here are some thoughts by Stratford Caldecott on this. 

Speaking of thinking, the novel, Helena by Evelyn Waugh is a really wonderful read at this time of year. On the surface it is about conversion, culture and the search for the True Cross. However it is, in true Waugh style, just as much a commentary about our own culture as that of the 4th Century. This article looks at what it is like when a satirist writes about a saint.

Have a lovely weekend from the Anima Team.

~ Just a note, when we link to a site we are not always endorsing the site as a whole,  we are just highlighting the post of interest on the site.